Rush Limbaugh

[gags]

I don't like it when people become passive aggressive as a result of my comments. How can I prevent this?

I assume you’re making an honest inquiry, so I’ll give you some advice and you can take it for what it’s worth. You started out by essentially saying that I’m unsophisticated. That wasn’t terribly offensive to me since I really don’t claim to have the most sophisticated sense of humor. Despite your initial mild insult, I took the time to tell you why I think that making fun of dirt-bags like Barney Frank and others is OK by me. The crimes and rights violations that some people commit are such that I don’t think they deserve to be dealt with under normal standards of decency. I think I explained that fairly clearly but you didn’t deal with the substance of what I said, you simply shot back a reply calling me a hypocrite based on your unsubstantiated claim that laughter is involuntary.

In the future, you might consider softening the tone of your responses. This is particularly appropriate when you are dealing with someone on an Objectivist board who probably holds philosophical beliefs similar to your own. Of course, if you don't value conversations with other Objectivists enough to at least give them the benefit of the doubt before deciding that they are unsophisticated hypocrits, then I wonder why you bother to post here.

That may be, but my opinion is based on some solid evidence you volunteered in your previous post. What's yours based on?

I don’t know what your “solid evidence” of laughter’s involuntary nature is, but I know from introspection that I have to think about a joke when I hear it. Particularly if something is on the radio (i.e. Limbaugh) I need to think about what was said before I laugh. If I find the joke funny then I laugh. It takes thought. I don’t know why you think that laughter is somehow involuntary, but I suppose that could apply to things like visual comedy, slapstick, funny pictures, etc. However in this context we're talking about someone on the radio, so that doesn’t fit.

Hey lady, you laughin' at me?

[Jake_Ellison]

I assume you’re making an honest inquiry, so I’ll give you some advice and you can take it for what it’s worth. You started out by essentially saying that I’m unsophisticated.

I wasn't making an honest inquiry, I'll fess up to that much, but before that I also wasn't saying that you're unsophisticated.

I just happened to see someone saying that what one finds funny is a matter of personal preference, and I thought, that's not right, let's try and come up with a better reason why different people find different things funny. In my experience, the level of familiarity with different types of humor and comedy is the main reason for that. (when it comes to the differences between what people laugh at honestly -- often there are fake differences, because a lot of people pretend to not find things that are deemed "offensive" funny, and that's another story)

I don’t know what your “solid evidence” of laughter’s involuntary nature is, but I know from introspection that I have to think about a joke when I hear it. Particularly if something is on the radio (i.e. Limbaugh) I need to think about what was said before I laugh.

You need to understand what was said before you laugh at it, of course. But if you then need to think about whether you should consider what was said funny or not, and then laugh or not laugh, then that's not honest laughter-you're faking this involuntary response, because you're trying to establish rapport with someone.

Honest laughter is involuntary. The evidence for that is indeed introspection (though I'm sure people are trying to prove it using brain scans and such).

[JMeganSnow]

Honest laughter is involuntary. The evidence for that is indeed introspection (though I'm sure people are trying to prove it using brain scans and such).

I wouldn't call it involuntary (I can restrain myself from laughing in many situations, and have to, otherwise I'd never be able to STOP laughing). What it is, is based on an *automatized* reaction just like any emotional/physical response. It is no easier and no more difficult to control than any other automatized reaction and depends a lot on how much attention you are paying. For ME, anyway, I'm likely to laugh more and more uncontrollably when the funny thing surprises me than if I'm expecting it.

[gags]

Limbaugh is getting grief because he made fun of the tens of thousands of people who showed up in Detroit looking for a government handout. If you didn't hear about it, the city announced that it was giving away $15 million in federal grants to needy people and the rumor spread locally that you could show up and get a check for $3,000. When you have 30%+ unemployment and a city loaded with people who are used to living off of the dole, you better believe that you're going to get a crowd when you announce you're giving away cash. Well, about 50,000 people came to Cobo Hall in the downtown area and a riot nearly broke out.

Here's a link to the opinion piece from a Detroit News columnist who didn't take very kindly to Limbaugh's comments:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091011/OP...0312/1409/METRO

Also, here's some background on the incident that caused the uproar: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33211233/ns/lo...ews-detroit_mi/